A long childhood feeds the hungry human brain
Evanston IL (SPX) Aug 26, 2014 -
A five-year old's brain is an energy monster. It uses twice as much glucose (the energy that fuels the brain) as that of a full-grown adult, a new study led by Northwestern University anthropologists has found.
The study helps to solve the long-standing mystery of why human children grow so slowly compared with our closest animal relatives.
It shows that energy funneled to the brain ...
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Black carbon linked to cardiovascular health
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Aug 26, 2014 -
Black carbon pollutants from wood smoke are known to trap heat near the earth's surface and warm the climate. A new study led by McGill Professor Jill Baumgartner suggests that black carbon may also increase women's risk of cardiovascular disease.
To investigate the effects of black carbon pollutants on the health of women cooking with traditional wood stoves, Baumgartner, a researcher at ...
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Earth can sustain more terrestrial plant growth than previously thought
Champaign IL (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
A new analysis suggests the planet can produce much more land-plant biomass - the total material in leaves, stems, roots, fruits, grains and other terrestrial plant parts - than previously thought.
The study, reported in Environmental Science and Technology, recalculates the theoretical limit of terrestrial plant productivity, and finds that it is much higher than many current estimates al ...
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Trash burning worldwide significantly worsens air pollution
Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
Unregulated trash burning around the globe is pumping far more pollution into the atmosphere than shown by official records. A new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research estimates that more than 40 percent of the world's garbage is burned in such fires, emitting gases and particles that can substantially affect human health and climate change.
The new study provides the ...
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Marine protected areas might not be enough to help overfished reefs recover
Atlanta GA (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
Pacific corals and fish can both smell a bad neighborhood, and use that ability to avoid settling in damaged reefs.
Damaged coral reefs emit chemical cues that repulse young coral and fish, discouraging them from settling in the degraded habitat, according to new research. The study shows for the first time that coral larvae can smell the difference between healthy and damaged reefs when t ...
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Composition of Earth's mantle revisited
Argonne IL (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
Research published last week in Science suggested that the makeup of the Earth's lower mantle, which makes up the largest part of the Earth by volume, is significantly different than previously thought.
The work, performed at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, will have a significant impact on our understanding of the lower mantle, sc ...
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Decision support system makes malaria diagnostics more effective
Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
A Finnish-Swedish research group at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, and Karolinska institutet, Stockholm, has developed a novel "man and machine" decision support system for diagnosing malaria infection.
This innovative diagnostic aid was described in PLOS One scientific journal. The method is based on computer vision algorithms similar to those ...
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